Mystery of the Doll Maker
by MidnightOracle
Summary: A series of murders lead the detectives of Konoha to reach out to the behavioral analyst detectives of Suna for help.AU ShikaTema more couples inside.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series or any of its characters *Sniffles*.

Mystery Of the Doll Maker Ch.1 

The horizon was a deep sapphire as the sun began its ascent up into the sky. At this same time Guy jogged his way through one of Konoha's dimly lit public parks and out of the corner of his eye he caught a brilliant flash of red causing him to stop and do a double take. As he walked closer towards the children's playground Guy began to recognize the shape of a young woman sitting gracefully on a swing or so it would appear. Upon examining the woman more closely he realized that she was unnaturally still. Hesitantly he reached out to check her pulse when he found none he called 9-1-1 with his sweaty cell phone.

It was 10:30 when detective Naruto Uzumaki and his partner Sasuke Uchiha stood in the middle of the crime scene around the body of a young red headed woman named Nala Jones who was dressed in a Victorian red and black boat neck gown with a black corset, shoes, fake diamond jewels and a red rose that was placed in her pinned up hair; her blue eyes stared hollowly back at them almost in an accusing fashion. A deep sigh caught both Naruto and Sasuke's attention and they glanced up at their friend and M.E. (Medical Examiner) "Oh there's another one, what a way to start your weekend huh?" Sakura asked her fellow co-workers "Yeah, well I guess it's true what people say crime never really does take a vacation." Sasuke replied as Sakura knelt down and started to examine the body. "She's been dead about 2 hours, no sign of any blunt force trauma to her body, she's about 20 years old, and Caucasian. But to know more I'll have to take her to the lab for a full evaluation. I'll call you guys as soon as I know anything." Sakura finally announced after a few minutes of looking over the body and after placing the victim in a gurney, covering the body, and loading it in the M.E. van Sakura drove towards her office.

Naruto and Sasuke canvased the area for a few hours checking the scene for any signs of struggle, blood, tracks, anything. If their suspicions were confirmed then they had a serial killer on the loose. This was the third crime scene they had been to and every single one of the previous crime scenes had similarities. There was always no sign of struggle, no blood, and no tracks which left them at a very frustrating dead end as far as the scene was concerned. All of the body's so far had been placed in variously colored Victorian styled outfits with no signs of struggle, blunt force trauma, and or rape. The victims' blood tests had always turned out negative for any signs of poison, drugs, and so forth. This left the whole squad irritated and lost. As Sasuke and Naruto helped catalogue the last of the crime scene, Naruto's cell went off and upon answering it Naruto discovered that the victim's death was identical to the other two deceased women. It was now official they had a homicide on their hands thanks to a serial killer.

Begrudgingly Naruto and Sasuke went back to their precinct to check in with their squad leader. As they entered the room they saw their boss combing over a vanilla folder, and noticing that the door was wide open Sasuke and Naruto walked through the open office door. Feeling a pair of eyes on him Lead detective Kakashi Hatake looked up and in doing so accidently dropped the folder which caused an Icha Icha Paradise book to fall out. This caused both Naruto and Sasuke to sweat drop as Kakashi hastily reached down to pick up the folder. "So what have you got for me?" Kakashi asked his two young detectives. "We found another body in the park and her case is identical to the other bodies that we found on the Ferris wheel last week and the woman on the park bench two days ago." Naruto answered solemnly "Do we have any leads as of late?" Kakashi asked "None." replied an irritated Sasuke. "Well what has our behavioral unit come up with so far?" Kakashi asked "Not much, Neji Hyuga thought he got something but that turned out to be a dead end, and Shikamaru Nara has just come back from his sabbatical and knows little to nothing so far" Naruto replied. "Well then I guess we may have to call in one of the best behavioral analysts detective squad and ask them to help us." Said a voice from the door way, the three males in the room turned and faced their superior Tsunade who had come by to see how the cases were going. Solemnly the men in the room nodded their heads in agreement.

- In Sunagakure -

The phone rang in Gaara Sabaku's office. After picking up the phone and having a brief discussion with the Tsunade, Gaara agreed to send one of his siblings out to Konoha to assist them. It was around 11:45pm when Temari walked into Gaara's office "You sent for me?" Temari asked her brother/ superior "There is a tricky serial killer out in Konoha, and they need our help. Now Kankuro is working on another case, and I can't just leave my city in the middle of a huge ongoing meeting, so I'm sending you out there first thing in the morning. Here is the case file and you will also be briefed upon your arrival" Gaara replied tiredly as he handed a folder to Temari, Temari looked at her brother "Okay, I guess I'll see you when I get back." She replied as she took the folder from his hands and started walking to the office door "Be careful…" Gaara said softly as Temari opened the door "I'll try, but no guarantees." Temari teased as she started heading home to pack.

A/N: Hi Everyone! ^-^ This is my second fanfic and my very first Naruto fanfic. I haven't read much of the Naruto series yet so I apologize if anything seems out of the norm. I know several of the characters are and or seem to be OOC if this upsets you again I apologize. Anyways I hope that you have enjoyed reading this chapter and continue to read more. I would really appreciate any reviews but please no flames! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

-Midnight Oracle


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series in any way shape or form *Sniffles*.

Mystery of the Doll Maker Ch.2 

Upon arriving at home Temari charged her phone, grabbed some clothes, toiletries and stuffed them into a suitcase. Inwardly Temari sighed she had just come back from solving another case and had been looking forward to what she had hoped would be a few days of rest and relaxation. _Oh well I guess I get to look forward to another mental rubix cube___Temari thought to herself as she made herself a cup of jasmine tea, and began to look over the crime scene photos before going to bed. A few short hours later Temari grabbed her stuff, locked her apartment door behind her and headed to the airport.

-Meanwhile in Konoha-

It was about 6:00am when a cell phone rudely decided to wake detective Shikamaru Nara. Groggily Shikamaru groped blindly around in the dark of his room for his cell phone, and once found opened it before saying "Nara speaking." "Shikamaru, we need you to get down to the precinct right away." Tsunade replied before the line went dead. Shikamaru groaned he really didn't feel up to it but orders were orders, so reluctantly Shikamaru changed and headed to the precinct.

Shortly thereafter Shikamaru walked through the precinct into his boss's office. Upon noting his arrival Tsunade looked up from the case file and hushed those still speaking in the room. "Nara, are you familiar with the current three homicides that were just discovered?" Tsunade asked "Sort of, all I know is that at the moment the killer is untraceable." Shikamaru replied. "Okay, well due to the fact that you're one of the only available behavioral analysts available on our squad, I have decided to partner you up with Temari Sabaku who is flying in from Suna to help us catch this maniac. She is said to be one of the most brilliant detectives that Suna has ever seen, and you are one of our brightest detectives therefore you will be partnered up. Now I'm also counting on you to show her around the crime scenes and escort her through Konoha." Tsunade said. Inwardly Shikamaru groaned and thought to himself, _this is troublesome, the last thing I need is to be slowed down by having to be partnered up with someone. Doesn't Tsunade know I like to work on my own? _Yet on the outside Shikamaru had that same bored expression stamped on his face. "Ms. Sabaku's flight is going to arrive in 2 hours. So I'm sending you to go pick her up and bring her back here for briefing. Now you're dismissed." Tsunade said as Tenten walked into her office with a ballistics report from another case.

-Meanwhile-

It was still somewhat dark out as a young art student with dyed blue hair and a white rose clip left her apartment and began walking down the street to the local art institute while carrying a painted canvas under her arm. She had stopped briefly to put on her ear buds when she suddenly heard something heavy drop to the ground with a loud thud and someone cursing. Quickly she looked around trying to identify where the sound had come from when her eyes landed on a woman whose bags had ripped next to her car. Noticing that she had an audience the stranger looked up and smiled apologetically at her. The young art prodigy knew how frustrating it was when things like that happened so she felt the need to see if the woman wanted any help. "Hey do you want some help with that?" She asked as she pointed to the ripped bags and the heavy looking items that had fallen out of it. The woman smiled "That would be amazing thanks." she said as she opened the trunk of her car and the two women began putting stuff into the car. Just as the artist was finished loading up the last item and began to turn around to leave the woman and carry on with her day she suddenly lost consciousness.

A/N: Hey Everyone! ^-^ I want to thank you all for your support so far! I also want to thank those of you who have read and or reviewed this story so far. It is all greatly appreciated! I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are greatly appreciated but remember please no flames. Thank you for taking the time to read this!

-Midnight Oracle


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series in anyway shape or form *Sniffles*.

Mystery of the Doll Maker Ch.3 

After two very long hours Temari finally arrived in Konoha. Sighing as she looked out of the terminal window Temari observed the rain drops that pelted the window and thought to herself, _OH, JUST GREAT…the most perfect weather for solving a crime in…just LOVE those puddles, being wet and COLD is just one of the great pleasures of my life…NOT and I sure do hate these storms!_ Temari slowly started to walk towards the luggage carrousel feeling herself becoming more and more irritated as the minutes clicked on by. Once all of her luggage had been found Temari texted the number that Gaara had given her to alert the Konoha detective(s) where she would be waiting when she landed. Looking around Temari decided to get some coffee while she waited. One hour and thirty five minutes later Temari's irritation level was beginning to blossom into a major pissed off level, _what could possibly take them this long? It has to be heavy traffic, but couldn't they at least respond to the text I sent? _Temari thought to herself extremely annoyed and angry. Suddenly she felt her phone vibrate, and getting her phone out Temari huffed in annoyance as the text was only from one of her brothers. Opening the text she read the following message: **Hey Tem, I heard you're flying to Konoha to work on a case. So I was just checking in to see if you've arrived yet. I heard a storm is passing through, enjoy the rain ;) – Kankuro. **The corners of Temari's mouth twitched slightly into a semi smile. She appreciated her brothers checking up on her but sometimes she wished they would trust her to take care of herself. Every case she worked it felt like her brothers were helicoptering over her waiting for any moment where they could jump in and save their damsel in distress sister. Temari understood that they only wanted to look out for her as she had for them as they were growing up, but she needed her space, and this case was just what she needed even if she wasn't on a real vacation. Temari was pulled out of her travels down memory lane by a pair of hands that suddenly and very roughly grabbed her by her shoulders. Acting on a defensive instinct and mode Temari grabbed the person's hands and quickly turned around and folded the person's arms tightly against their back effectively pinning the stranger against the wall next to the chair she had been previously been lounging in.

"Oi woman, let go!" the stranger grunted out irritated.

"Who are you?" Tamari demanded angrily.

"My name is Shikamaru Nara; I'm from the Konoha behavioral detectives unit. Now let go." Shikamaru replied.

Temari growled angrily but silently and thought to herself… _Oh could this day get any worse? AND what a MORON to pull such a stunt on a well- trained profiler and investigator! What did he expect that I would do by sneaking up on me like this? Sigh, I bet his male ego will be shattered? Jeez and WHAT a wonderful way to start a case. Even though it is HIS fault that we started off on the wrong foot. _ After a minute of glaring at him Temari released Shikamaru and squelched her anger and desire to yell at him and said in as calm of a tone as she could muster, "Hey, look I am sorry about that BUT you did startle me AND you should have said something before touching me so that I wouldn't have reacted so defensively".

Shikamaru turned to face her and gave her a deer in the headlights look before mumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "I did you troublesome woman".

"Come again?" Temari demanded as her annoyance and anger flared up a notch and the thought _that this guy REALLY was a MORON _filled her head, when he interrupted her thoughts with,

"I said I did, but since you didn't seem to hear me I thought I would try to somehow get your attention. And now that I have it lets get a move on it." Shikamaru replied.

Successfully fighting down her desire to slap him she felt much to her dismay that her face was warm with an embarrassed blush and Temari continued to look him in the eyes and said in a surprised tone, more to herself than to him' "I really am sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Well obviously not." Shikamaru replied smirking. Temari again took a deep breath to calm the urge to slap that look smug look off of his face, for she was just trying to sincerely apologize and he was being such a douche in response.

"Again I'm sorry, now let's put this behind us and start again." Temari said once she had calmed herself down and stuck out her hand for a hand shake "My name is…" Temari began only to be interrupted by Shikamaru

"Temari Sabaku one of Suna's most promising lead detectives, I know. You already know who I am. Now that that's out of the way lets go." Shikamaru said in a bored tone as he ignored the hand shake, picked up one of her suite cases and began walking towards the direction of his car. Temari felt her temper begin to flare up to a dangerous level as she picked up her carry-on bag and her purse and followed him out of the terminal and thought the whole way to his car, _Oh I really hope I'm not being partnered up with this true JERKY MORON !_

- Meanwhile-

The young artist opened her eyes, feeling strange like the effects of a drug were wearing off. Her head hurt, her mouth was dry like sandpaper, and she felt a flight and fight response coming on that burned deep within every muscle of her body. With this response she felt her heart race at levels that she had never experienced before and to beat so hard as if it was throwing itself against her rib cage trying to escape a prison. Her heart raced to such an extent that she was afraid that she would die as her heart must exploded since it couldn't surely keep beating at this fast pace. She also felt nauseated by fear and extremely panicked as she realized that it was she who sat in a cage and not her heart that lay in its protective cage made out of ribs. What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was helping someone with something and then darkness. Uneasily she surveyed her surroundings and the first thing that she noticed that looked out of place besides being locked away in a metal cage herself was that in front of the cage stood a vanity mirror covered in cosmetics and a barber's chair standing in front of the mirror. The second thing that she noticed was that she couldn't move a muscle and this realization set off a tsunami sized wave of panic…had she had a stroke or suffered a spinal cord injury somehow? Inwardly this tsunami sized wave of panic was threatening to drown her as she became aware of the fact that she could only move her eyes, swallow, and breath. Quickly taking a glance at her body she noticed an IV line sticking out of her arm and this line was attached to an IV bag that hung outside of her cage. She screamed with all of her might in order to get someone's attention but was horrified to discover that the scream was only in her head since she couldn't produce any sounds. Another wave of panic and nausea crashed over her as thoughts of what sick things this creep could want with her started to race through her mind.

Suddenly hearing the sound of footsteps the scared blue haired girl searched for the maniac to who those footsteps belonged to. Not but a second or two later a figure with a hoodie walked into the room pushing a wheel chair with a raven haired woman sitting in it, an IV line attached to the woman's arm. The artist watched in shock as the concealed stranger managed to lift the woman into the barber's chair and hang the IV bag onto a hooked pole. She stared at the captive woman's face and nearly jumped out of her skin when the raven haired woman opened her green eyes. Once she and the green eyed woman locked gazes tears began to flow from the woman's face. This managed to catch the attention of their captor who had been searching for something in a cosmetic drawer a moment ago "Hey it's okay Nicki. I'm here and I'll take good care of you, no one is ever going to take you away from me ever again." the stranger cooed as she wiped away Nicki's tears. What surprised the artist the most was not the fact that their captor was being so "nice" or so it would appear, but the fact that her voice sounded very familiar to her. Then it hit her, their captor was the woman she ran into earlier that day.

The artist continued to observe a frightened Nicki in the barber's chair. The two women held each other's gazes as if trying to mentally comfort one another. The artist watched as their captor began to apply foundation to Nicki's face, which was then followed by blood red lipstick, blush, dark eye shadow, mascara, and black eyeliner which made Nicki's green eyes pop more. Their captor then gave Nicki a manicure and painted her nails green. The artist continued to watch in confusion as their captor proceeded to brush, then curl Nicki's hair, and tie it into an elegant bun. Once finished their captor placed a jeweled butterfly clip into Nicki's bun and took a minute to admire her handy work. Bending down to gaze upon Nicki's ear the captor noticed that her victim's ears were not pierced and this fact it appears was problematic since she needed to put on earrings and she had no clip-on earrings. After rummaging through a drawer she unpacked the earrings and looked at Nicki "I'm sorry, but you need these. I will try and get it over with quickly" said their mysterious captor and proceeded to hastily jam the earring through Nicki's ear. Nicki's eyes displayed terror, and pain as she kept her gaze on the young artist who stared back at her horrified. Once all the jewelry had been placed in and upon her victim, the strange woman walked over to a mahogany dresser and brought out a green and blue Victorian style ball gown. "Now it's time to get you dressed." the stranger cooed and after several minutes Nicki was fully dressed in the blue gown with an elegant green and gold corset tied around her waist. "There you're all done now Nicki." the stranger said her voice full of excitement. The stranger then looked up at a clock hanging on the wall and said in an eerie manner "It's time for the tea party Nicki! Oh you're going to love it, and everyone else is so looking forward to meeting you!" their captive squealed happily as she wheeled a terrified Nicki out of the room. Suddenly it dawned on the horrified artist _she's turning us into her own personal dolls! _

A/N: Hey Everyone! ^-^ I Hope that you have enjoyed this chapter! I appreciate constructive criticism, but I would just like to let you guys know that my computer has been acting up and not formatting the story as I have originally written it, my beta and I are currently working to solve this problem. Sorry for the inconvenience! I know the last chapter was a little short so I made this one longer, and so will the future chapters be. I want to thank those of you who are reading and or reviewing for my story it is greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read this! Happy New Years!

-Midnight Oracle


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